The company held its General Meeting of Shareholders today, where a balance sheet of activities was made. The event was marked by the protest that several groups have held in front of the facilities to oppose CAF’s participation in the Jerusalem light rail project.
Company Construction and Railway Assistance (CAF) It aims to achieve “above-market sales growth and a gradual return to profitability” in 2023 until it is on track for its strategic plan to increase sales to €4.8 billion by 2026.
CAF’s president and CEO, Andrés Arizkorreta and Javier Martínez Ojinaga, respectively, discussed the company’s evolution and prospects in the speech they gave this Saturday before the General shareholders’ meetingmeeting at the company’s headquarters in Beasain (Gipuzkoa).
Martínez Ojinaga has emphasized the “good time” which the industry goes through when he confirms that “there is no doubt” that zero-emission rail and bus mobility, CAF’s core business, “has a tailwind”.
It has announced that in the course of 2023 they already foresee “the beginning of the recovery” of their Polish subsidiary Solaris and the “profitability of the group”, whose net profit fell by 38% last year to 55 million euros due to inflation and the shortage of components.
As for the most important Figures for 2022the company’s CEO has emphasized that CAF reached a contracting level of more than 6,000 million euroswhat does one mean always high which made it possible to increase the portfolio by 37% compared to last year to register a record amount of 13,250 million euros.
In the track segmentCAF achieved a level of adoption of EUR 5000 millionwhich is another record, which also made it possible to increase the number of the order book to 12,000 million by major projects in the major rail markets of the world. Among these, he mentioned the award for a consortium in which CAF participated in the project for the Jerusalem light rail purple line.
Protests against ‘the apartheid train’
Especially against this infrastructure different social groups have manifested themselvesAmongst them International amnestyat the doors of the facilities where the meeting was held, asking CAF to “withdraw” from the project.
The protest has been organized by various entities grouped under the platform “CAF Get off the apartheid train” and during the protest, participants have waved Palestinian flags and displayed banners and posters with slogans such as “It’s not just trains, it’s instruments of colonization CAF don’t be an accomplice”. They have also uttered cries, which intensified as shareholders entered the company’s facilities, such as “Palestine, freedom” or “Assassin Israel, CAF employee”.
For his part, Gerardo Ríos, an Amnesty International (AI) activist and CAF shareholder, has used his turn to speak to demand that the board halt the rail project. He asked at the meeting why the company “in the sustainability report continues to avoid the project crossing the Palestinian territories and illegal settlements in Jerusalem, thereby hiding risk factors.”
According to AI, “the company has continued to advocate for the ‘positive’ social impact of the project and, hiding behind a consultation with an expert, has reaffirmed its legality, although it has not made the contents of its report public. “
Ríos has also criticized the fact that CAF’s “reports and policies” “ensure” it is a company “committed to respecting human rights” when it “fails to consider the consequences” of this project for the Palestinian people.
In addition to these concentrates, there are also dozens of other people, dressed in yellow t-shirts or vests and with their own protest banners, belonging to the group of victims due to difficulties in recovering quotas from the EPSV Geroa.
Source: EITB
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
